TERROR TRAIN

Directed by Roger Spottiswoode
Written by T.Y. Drake
Music by John Mills-Cockell
Cast: Jamie Lee Curtis, Ben Johnson, Hart Bochner, Sandee Currie, Anthony Sherwood, Timothy Webber, Howard Busgang, David Copperfield & Derek MacKinnon

1980/97 mins/Color/Dolby Digital Stereo
1.85:1 Anamorphic/English/Canada/NTSC Region 1

Review from the Fox DVD

It's New Year's Eve and the students of Sigma Phi are celebrating their freshman year. Much to Alana (Curtis) not knowing, fellow students Doc, Mitchy, Jack, Mo and Ed are playing an elaborate and sick prank on the shy and nerdy Kenny Hampson (MacKinnon). As expected it goes terribly wrong.

Fast foward three years later, its graduation time and the students are about to celebrate with a costume party on a train. But they are not alone, a masked killer is about to crash the celebration and get revenge.

After babysitting in HALLOWEEN and becoming prom queen in PROM NIGHT, horror scream queen Jamie Lee Curtis was back facing terror, this time in a train. This would also be the last time she appeared in a fright flick, the last until HALLOWEEN H20 almost twenty years later.

Released at the height of the slasher genre, 20th Century Fox acquired the rights to this $3 million Canadian production which would end up making a little more the $10 million at the box office. Not a failure but far from the success of movies like HALLOWEEN and FRIDAY THE 13TH.

Filmed in my hometown of Montreal, TERROR TRAIN remains one of the highlight of the slasher craze, especially due to the cinematography by John Alcott, who shot A CLOCKWORK ORANGE, BARRY LYNDON and THE SHINNING for Stanley Kubrick. The shooting was a troubled one, director Roger Spottiswoode (who would later helm TOMORROW NEVER DIES and THE 6TH DAY) was given six weeks of pre-production for a 25-day shoot. Due to the low budget of the project, they couldn't build a set so it was actually shot in a real train.

Canadian actress Joy Boushel is also part of the film. You probably never heard of her, but a kid she was one of the first woman I had a crush on... certainly due to her enormous breast. She also was in the teen comedy PINBALL SUMMER, LA GUERRE DU FEU (QUEST FOR FIRE) and David Cronenberg's THE FLY. Prince's protegé and love interest Vanity (known back then as Denise D. Winters) is also part of the cast. And last but not least, magician David Copperfield is cast playing.... a magician.

Fox finally released TERROR TRAIN on DVD. The movie is presened in its original 1.85:1 aspect ratio and it is anamorphic. The colors are rich and nicely saturated. A full screen is available on the other side of the disc. We get the choice of three audio tracks; for purist there's the original English Mono, English Stereo and Spanish Stereo track. None of them are spectacular or anything but sound fine. Optional English and Spanish subtitles are available.

The only extra we get is the theatrical trailer. The disc features static menus, 16 chapter stops, comes in a keep case with an inlay card.

"The boys and girls of Sigma Phi. Some will live. Some will die."

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Review by Kim Dubuisson. All Right Reserved. 2007. ©

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